Where to order the Samsung Galaxy S III in the United States

The roll-out of the Samsung Galaxy S III has begun in earnest. From its announcement in London a month ago to release in Europe and elsewhere, and now with preorders well under way in the United States, the GSIII certainly has positioned itself as the phone to be reckoned with in 2012.

Following is a quick roundup of where you get preorders, and when we expect phones to ship.

AT&T

Currently available for preorder from AT&T's website for $199 on contract ($549 outright) in both white and pebble blue. Currently showing arrival on or before June 21. Do note that AT&T's only offering 16 gigabytes of internal storage, whereas other U.S. carriers have 32-gigabyte versions. [Preorder from AT&T]

Best Buy

The big-box retailer has begin preorders at its retail locations and standalone stores nationwide. You fork over $50 now and pay the rest when the phone becomes available. (Though some folk are reporting they weren't made to buy the $50 gift card up front.) Sizing and color options should remain consistent with what the individual carriers have available on their ends. [More at Best Buy]

Radio Shack

The Shack this week announced that it's taking preorders for the Galaxy S III on Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. It's using its standard preorder process in which you fork over $50 in exchange for a gift card and the promise of a phone later. You can use the gift card toward the purchase price of the phone. Preorders currently are in-store only.

Sprint

Preorders are under way now, arrival and general availability expected is June 21. The phone runs $199 on contract, or $549 outright. Available in pebble blue or white, in 16GB or 32GB versions. Also comes with Google Wallet officially installed and working. (The same likely won't be said for other carriers' versions.) [Preorder from Sprint]

The Sprint version of the Galaxy S III also is available for preorder from Best Buy Mobile Solutions and ShopAndroid.com. [More at ShopAndroid.com]

T-Mobile

The Galaxy S III will be released June 21; TMo currently isn't accepting preorders online. It will have the white and pebble blue colors in both 16GB and 32GB options. T-Mobile hasn't officially announced pricing, but its version of the GSIII will have Wifi Calling available, same as on other T-Mobile Android devices. [More at T-Mobile]

US Cellular

USCC is the smallest carrier in the initial U.S. launch. It's got the 16GB version in white and pebble blue, and the 32GB version in white only. The 16-gigabyte version will cost $199 on contract, and the 32-gigabyte version is $249. Preorders start June 12, with delivery sometime in July. USCC's Galaxy S III is one of the carriers newest LTE-enabled device. [More at US Cellular]

Verizon

Big Red's Galaxy S III is available for preorder in both colors, at 16GB and 32GB storage options. It'll cost you $599 outright, or $199 on contract. Verizon's currently got the shipping date at July 9, some two weeks after other carriers. (Some folks have gotten e-mails upon ordering their phones listing a June 6 shipping date. We'd ignore that.) [Preorder at Verizon Wireless]

We'd expect to see more regional carrier announcements in the coming months, along with other retail availability. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, be sure to hit up our Galaxy S III forums with your questions.

Reader comments

Where to order the Samsung Galaxy S III in the United States

It should be noted that when I pre-ordered through Verizon's website (upgrade line), it had me choose my plan as well. My unlimited data was still an option. So it *appears* that you can keep your unlimited data when you preorder this phone, since technically you are resigning your contract when you place the preorder and you choose your plan then and there.

From what I have heard, there is a short term offering for upgrading to a new device and keep the unlimited plan for now. This is good for the term of contract. If no device upgrade is done, then unlimited will cease for 4G. My understanding anyway.

That isn't correct. Once they change the plans, you will only lose your unlimited data when you renew your contract in order to get a new device at the discounted rate.

If you let your contract expire, and don't upgrade to a new phone, or pay full retail for a new phone if you do, then you will still keep your unlimited data.

So to recap, once the plans change, you will only lose your unlimited data when you do a device upgrade at contract price (and so far, reports are saying this only applies when you upgrade from 3G to 4G. 4G to 4G might still keep their unlimited data).

Yeah I got the same warning, though I think that just relates to equipment, which they don't give employee discounts anyway.

I did get charged the upgrade fee.

I also have an employee discount on my plan and then a couple $20 data discounts. None of those showed up, so I'm willing to bet it was just showing me the actual plan rates and the discounts will get applied later. I didn't change anything on my plan, so I see no reason why that stuff would go away.

I also preordered my phone on verizonwireless and got the white 32g gave me a huge discount only cost me 139.06 was total after tax and that included a 30.00 upgrade fee..which i dont know why they charged me that cause it said i was eligible for an upgrade, WIerd. but it also showed me to keep my plan the same and have the unlimited data for 29.99. im on a family shared plan so I dont know if that makes a difference on the discount, but Im not complaining

I stopped by the VZW store near my office and did this in person. Sales dude said that my unlimited 3G would carry on as unlimited 4G. He wasn't sure what the dealio would be if i did not pre-order. I wanted this phone anyway, so I dove right in.

It sounds like Samsung is really learning from their past mistakes on this launch, they have all the carriers on board, they have (nearly) the same phone options going out to all of them, and the carriers seem to be pretty well in sync with the release. Time will tell if the software builds and updates are similar enough to really call this a "universal" handset the way the (gasp) iPhone is, but we are definitely on the right track. I hope Samsung sells 100 million of these things and Android is finally in the leadership position it has fought for these past couple of years.

So this may be a stupid question. I'm thinking of going the prepaid route with either Straight Talk or TMO's Monthy4G. If I buy the phone outright, say, from AT&T, will an AT&T Straight Talk SIM work without the phone being unlocked? Same thing if I buy from TMO? I'm currently on Sprint so will AT&T or TMO let me buy a phone outright without signing anything with them? Thanks for any input.

Well, if your carrier of choice offers a much lower price for the phone in exchange for your promise to stay with them for 2 years, but do not offer a lower priced plan if you pay outright for the phone, and you are not planning on leaving your carrier, what reason would you buy the phone for more? In my experience, most users don't jump around carriers unless they are dissatisfied with the service (example: recently moved to less covered area), or the device they really want is only available on the "other carrier" (example: at&t exclusive iphone when it launched, tmobile first/only android at the time). It's a very rare event when the coverage in an area goes downhill, since all carriers are building their networks out. Nextel would be one example where coverage is going down in all areas, but it's a known move, and nextel users were warned it would be happening for some time now.

Verizon customers, if you're still on the fence about pre-ordering I would do it now. You don't have to come up with ANY money down. Verizon does not bill you until the phone actually ships on July 9th. (not sure if the other carriers do this as well, just going by my experience this morning when I pre-ordered two)
I also got a 30 dollar upgrade discount, but I wasn't able to use my 21% company discount.

bleh i'm a dope ,I just had to click on white, ordered my white 32 gig on verizon, although I will say when you read the contract it says verizon has the right to change the prices any time they please, I feel better anyway knowing I've already renewed my contract, I'm finding the best buy people to be uninformed and rude anyway, I'm sure to have a blast tomorrow when I try to get my fifty dollars back from them.

For those wondering about amazon wireless, they have it available for preorder for ATT at least..Just put my preorder in 199 no tax on a 2 year upgrade... estimated ship is june 21st and estimated delivery is june 26-28

wirefly.com usually sells phones for a little less than anywhere else. Once it's up on their website I'd check them out. I bought my Thunderbolt from them for $100 less than I would have paid at Verizon or Best Buy, and best of all I didn't have to deal with the incompetent Verizon employees!

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